Vocalist Theodora Laird, performing as Feeo, releases her debut album Goodness on 10 October, offering a serene yet powerful collection of improvised music. With support from bassist Caius Williams, Laird’s vocals navigate delicate, textural atmospheres with crisp conviction and poetic intrigue.
Over the past three years, Laird and Williams have built a hub for improvised music at Grain, a residency at Avalon cafe in south Bermondsey. They have invited experimental luminaries like Steve Noble and Elaine Mitchener to play alongside younger generations, with the duo serving as the still points of this constantly turning world.
Laird’s work focuses on breaking and remaking language, reflected in Goodness. Every syllable feels cared for, every utterance close and alive in the mix. Emerging from a London underground enamoured of submerged, grimy sounds, the album feels like gulping clean, crisp air.
Accompanied by horizontally stretched textures—blemishing drones, light beats, uneven synth and piano figures, and Williams on guitars, bass and baritone—Laird’s vocals shine. The single The Mountain simmers with poetic intrigue, while mid-album highlight Here pleads with a lover to escape a brutal city: “This place was built to last. It wasn’t built for love.”
